Whaley Bridge 2nd XI v Hollingworth (away) Saturday 28th May 2016

posted 3 Jun 2016, 04:00 by Mike Madden

I can't promise one of these every week, but last week's game against Hollingworth is certainly worth detailing. We started with 9 men, then persuaded increasingly impressive scorer Tom Heyes to swell our numbers. We arrived at Hollingworth to some unfamiliar faces, and it seemed that they may be as short as us. The pitch looked ok, perhaps a little soft, but given the strength of our bowling attack we opted to stick them in. Heading out to field we realised that we did not have a wicketkeeper, and Ole Madden was swiftly commandeered into service.

This had an almost immediate effect as Ed Kitchen got one to drift away, and Ole took a smart catch. Colin Wild steamed in and the batsmen folded. Bowled, lbw, lbw, bowled. It seemed that we couldn't go wrong as the hosts slumped to 8 for 6. We sensed an early tea, but as ever in these situations, someone always gets a few. Ivan chased around the field with enthusiasm, but often with the strange appearance of an injured gazelle that suddenly receives a second bullet into its hind quarters. Bruce Glover dropped a difficult chance, and suddenly Hollingworth looked like posting a reasonable score. Enter our youngsters, and Charlie Kitchen got in on the lbw act. Bruce Glover required a bit of WD40, but after he shook off the rust he got the key wicket with Ivan taking a good catch. Charlie and Bruce claimed another victim each, and we were up against a total of 103 all out, with around 57 overs to get them.

With only 10 men we couldn't afford to lose an early wicket, but no one told Ivan. He chipped one up and we were 18-1, with the ex skipper on 16. Ole Madden came in at three and struggled to get off the mark. The score advanced to 37-1 with the ex skipper on 35, then Ole found his range with a flick into the nets for 6. He followed this with a four, then found himself trapped in front. 63-2 and cruising? Never at Whaley Bridge. Toe came in and struggled to time the ball. He subsequently blamed the middle on his bat, but as the ball never found that particular spot that is perhaps unfair on the innocent piece of willow. Toe went, followed by Charlie, but our purveyor of butternut squash, passion fruit and tomatoes did not lettuce down. Rarely can the Hollingworth attack have bean smote to all corners as the skipper began to re-pear the damage. He got us home for the loss of 5 wickets, and although Bruce struck the winning runs, we have to say thank shallot to the captain.